Last Weekend of Light

This past weekend was shaping up to be pretty fun, with some great weather in the forecast. Saturday it was just entirely too nice to go to the Boulder Reservoir (again) for another race there. So instead I went for some Brian-time out on the geared cross bike, riding quiet singletrack from the house. It was pretty awesome, not just because it was November, and I was riding in shorts, at more than 8,000ft under clear skies!

Riding singletrack with "skinnier" tires is always a blast! And I love practicing my handling and descending skills on some gnarly, loose sections.

And another fun downhill section - all within site of the house from here!

Someday I'll have to capture some vid of the really good descent, that's burried in the woods. That one is really fun to pick your way down. Anyway, it was a great day to be out, and I had picked a good loop, because I only saw one other person out, after two hours of riding.

A small part of me really just wanted to keep riding, but a much bigger part of me was anxious to rush home and take out the moto! It was way too nice of a day, and was the first chance I had to ride in a good while. Sadly, it was also shaping up to look like it might be one of the last rides this season, since there's snow in the forecast. It was awesome to be back on the bike, and somehow the gods were smiling on me, as I didn't run into a single car, the entire way up St. Vrain Canyon! Nothing but 18 miles of open, twisty, well-paved canyon road ahead of me.

All in all, a great day.

Sunday it was time to get back onto the cross bike for some racing down in Castle Rock. I don't know if the course description was 100% accurate, but it was definitely WAY better than last year (though nearly identical) since last year there was 10" of snow on the course the day before, which had all melted for the race, turning it into a real slop-fest. Sunday was the opposite, dry and dusty. Overall I think the course was pretty fun. I ended up in a chase with Carlos, working hard to pull back Brady and Russell Kappius. And it was a good course to go hard and suffer on, so that was fun. I finished 4th after some big work for Carlos, who wasn't quite able to catch the Kappius duo at the finish.

However, the time change sucks... and this being the first race of the time change, meant the sun was super low at the start of our race, and made it absolutely impossible to see sections of the course. Though it might have been worse, that it was dark well before I made it home. Ugh.

Catch the Gates Carbon Drive Team update here.

Now... a shitty week of snow and cold and of it being dark when I get to leave my cubicle prison each evening. But I don't think I really care, because on Friday it's time for a plane trip to someplace my warmer. I've had my fins, snorkle and mask packed for a week, and I just plan on wearing my swim suit on the plane so that I'm ready to go when we get there!